ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) – A federal security officer charged with killing three people, including his estranged wife, in a shooting rampage in Maryland should have surrendered all his guns as a result of a protective order but didn’t, a prosecutor said Monday during a hearing in which the man was ordered held without bond.
Eulalio Tordil of Adelphi, an employee of the Federal Protective Service, appeared in court by video Monday afternoon in Rockville. A public defender representing him, John Lavigne, conceded it wasn’t realistic to ask for the 62-year-old, who is facing first-degree murder and other charges, to be released at this point.
In court, Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy called Tordil “very tough to track” after he shot his wife Thursday night at a high school. He was driving a rental car and had turned off his cellphone, McCarthy said. License plate reading devices showed Tordil had driven all over the region and into Virginia as law enforcement officers searched for him, McCarthy said. Officials searching for him also learned he had left notes suggesting he was suicidal and believed he would be killed by police, McCarthy said.
On Friday, less than 24 hours after killing his wife, Tordil fatally shot two more people during apparent carjacking attempts before being caught, McCarthy said. The shootings took place at Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda, and at a nearby shopping center. In the mall parking lot, charging documents allege Tordil confronted a woman returning to her silver Toyota RAV4. When she yelled for help, two men approached and Tordil shot her and them, killing 45-year-old Malcom Winffel of Boyds, the document alleges.
About a half hour later, an officer responding to a report of shots fired in a nearby shopping center found 65-year-old Claudina Molina of Silver Spring fatally shot inside her RAV4 in the parking lot near a supermarket, charging documents state.